The Frozen War
by Avid Flash
Summary: The Doctor and companion Martha Jones land in an alien museum on another planet. No time to enjoy the scenery though when civilians in the museum disappear only to be found in the artworks around them.
1. Press Pause

'It's OK honey, I'll be home soon,' said Jake Swame not really believing the words he was telling his wife on the phone. 'I know darling but, how did this happen, your fighting someone else's war, and on another planet! Baby, you can't know what's going to happen.'

'Don't worry, I'm sorry but I....' the phone cut out and was replaced with the shrieking blare of an alarm. Jake didn't know what this alarm meant and he was beginning not to care. The phone calls from his wife had driven him mad with nostalgia, longing for his home planet. Now that the phone call was over, Jake was dragged back into the real world. He turned away from the phone to see the familiar long, wooden hallways of the barracks, soldiers scrambling for their guns in the weapons room. Jake halted a passing soldier who seemed to be fairly calm.

'Status report soldier,' ordered Jake.

'They're attacking the base, sir' said the soldier with a brisk salute. 'All men to their battle stations as the general ordered sir.'

'What, here? Now?'

'Yes sir, their entire army, land and sky battalions are all converging to this base.'

'How did they get here, we've been following their every move.' said Jake a little too loud.

'They should be on the other side of the planet.' A heavy thud followed by a scream sent the army into panic.

'They must have tricked us, sir.' The soldier let out a heavy sob 'Oh, God, we can't survive this.' he whispered. From somewhere outside the building a voice echoed.

'We need all men outside now, this is it gentlemen we are at war.'

'That's the general,' said the soldier. 'They're outside.'

'_This is the final battle; the war will be over after this_,' Jake thought. He looked across the line of brave men, some ready to face fate, others close to tears but all had their heads high and guns cocked.

'_I didn't have a choice.'_ thought Jake.

'_That's why I'm here._' Jake remembered the news on the television the night before, interviewing members of the protest group, the Tauntin Diadem they called themselves, threatening that they were going to do something about the war. In his heart, Jake wished that they would.

In front of Jake, standing in the line was the reason for this pointless war. The aliens were well built, serpentine, and nearly double the size of the human soldiers. They made a horrible hiss whenever they spoke. The general had spoken with the leader of the alien army and arranged a final fight to the death, the _'final battle' _the general called it.

The only good thing about the battle was that no civilians were going to get hurt; the army base was far away from any town.

A strange tittering laugh interrupted Jake's thoughts. The soldiers and the aliens alike turned in confusion to try to find the source of the noise; it seemed to be coming from everywhere.

'Gentlemen, soldiers, noble Perathoon.' yelled the voice. Finally, they knew the name of the creatures they were about to face.

'This must be the general,' Jake whispered to the soldier next to him. 'He's going to announce the start of the war.' The unknown voice made another childish laugh, as if it knew something that they didn't.

'Today this war stops, yet it does not finish. There need be no more death.'

'That's not the general.' whispered the soldier next to him. Jake looked around, the same face of confusion displayed by everyone, humans and otherwise.

'We have been called upon by the people to stop this war and we intend to do so.' said the voice with a hint of malice.

'We are the Tauntin Diadem and you,...' he paused for what seemed forever. '...you people will live forever.' In the background, Jake could hear the mystery man give an order. There was a low grumbling coming from above, still confused, Jake craned his neck skywards. A large blue light, a perfect circle came plummeting towards the very ground that they were standing on. It reminded Jake of his home planet, Earth. As the sphere passed them, every alien ship hovering above the battle site turned a bright blue and began falling to the ground with it.

'If we are to die today,' one of the Perathoon yelled, his shaking voice told everyone listening that there was no 'if' about it.

'We shall die fighting!' With that, both human and Perathoon armies charged at each other, faces wet with tears. The leader of Tauntin Diadem cackling with laughter as the bomb fell.


	2. Malcassairo

'Martha!' yelled the Doctor from the main console of the TARDIS. There was a long silence.

'Martha, c'mon hurry up, we're gonna be late.'

'How can you be late if you have a time machine?' Martha yelled back from somewhere in the infinite rooms of the TARDIS, the Doctor's time and space travelling machine.

'Oh it can happen, but it's hard to explain really, all this wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.' yelled back the Doctor.

'Slow down there, I'm getting lost in the techno-babble. I never knew this place was so big! And the wardrobe, you've got a dozen tuxes. I'm surprised you just wear that same suit all the time.'

'What's wrong with the suit? Janis Joplin gave it to me you know.' Martha could imagine the smug look on the Doctor's face.

'This is why you travel isn't it, to meet all the celebs. I bet you've chatted to Tom Cruise before haven't you?' there was another long silence.

'Well... yeah, I've met baby Souri as well, when she's thirty three mind you, first person to ever marry an alien. Are you done yet?'

'What do you think of this?' Martha stepped out of the wardrobe room into the console room. She was wearing a red leather jacket with black trousers and a ridiculous looking blue hat with feathers and fruit all over it.

'Really, do I have to wear this?' asked Martha.

'Yes, yes, yes, it's an ancient custom. Except for the hat.' said the Doctor trying his best to conceal a grin.

'The Malcassairan law requires that everyone must wear red in this museum...'

'But w'

'Don't ask why, and since you didn't really pack for this it's the only thing you... oh, I'm being rude again, I thought I got that out of my system. Oh well, of to Malcassairo, no spoilers, just gonna be a surprise.'

The Doctor yanked open the door. A crowd of silent, staring people were gathered outside. The Doctor looked around. The TARDIS was parked right in the middle of a gigantic museum. Beautiful sculptures and tacky paintings covered the bright blue walls of the hallway. The museum itself was tall, so tall that the ceiling could not be seen; a blue mist similar to a cloud hid the structure's true height. Apart from the human-looking creatures walking the tiled floors, there were also others, blue people, loads of them. Obviously part of staff, they were wearing the same dull grey uniform.

'Doctor.' Martha whispered. The Doctor looked to Martha, and then to the direction she was rudely pointing at.

'Don't point,' said the Doctor with the roll of his eyes. A large crowd of people had gathered around the TARDIS, all wearing red, all had large floral nametags.

'What is it?' someone whispered.

'What are those people?' a woman yelled with obvious disgust.

'Doctor, they've got tails.' whispered Martha, obviously a little frightened. She was right though, a man turned to walk away; obviously bored with the strange creatures turning up slap-bang in the middle of their museum; and trailing behind him was a sinewy tail like a mouse.

'Oh, that's cute. Completely wrong though. They're not supposed to have tails yet, unless... You!' he pointed at one of the elderly female creatures. The Doctor squinted at her unnecessarily large nametag 'Prinessa, sorry,' he said to himself 'Don't point. What year is it if you don't mind?'

'That thing just appeared out of nowhere! And who the hell are you?' she shrieked shrilly, her tail flailing about angrily.

'Oh yes, my name is John Smith, museum... ummm,' he paused.

'Any ideas Martha?' whispered the Doctor.

'Err....' she looked around the museum and spotted something.

'Lighting specialist!' she said triumphantly.

'That's it, John Smith, lighting specialist.' The Doctor replied waving the psychic paper in front of her face.

'What is that thing.' she said, pointing at the TARDIS with a shaking, fearful hand.

'Oh I dunno. Please, just tell me the year.'

'And who is that?' pointing at Martha who returned with a puzzled look. By this time, the crowd has gone away, just leaving the old lady fighting for some answers.

'She is my assistant lighting specialist Martha Jones. Now can you please tell us what year it is?'

She sighed heavily. 'It's the year of Baccili Normka.' she said.

'Ok, thank you for your co-operation, we need to...' without warning, a tiny orb of blue light appeared on Prinessa's head and then, she disappeared. So sound, no cloud of brimstone just a little blue ball on her head.

'Martha Jones,' said the Doctor, both looking at the spot where Prinessa disappeared.

'It looks like we've got a mystery on our hands.'

'Here's what we came here for.' The Doctor said pointing at a blue square object somewhere down the hall.

'That lady disappeared!' exclaimed Martha 'Right in front of us, aren't we supposed to be looking for her? That's us really, Mysteries Inc.'

'Yeah right. C'mon, pick up the pace. We'll find her.'

'Why was it bad that they had tails?' asked Martha.

'Someone's changed history; the people on this planet at this time are supposed to be big yellow beetle people.'

'Maybe you're history is not so good.'

'Ooh I doubt it.' said the Doctor sounding a bit hurt.

'Here we are then.' the Doctor looking up at the large blue block over 20 feet tall. It was perfectly square except for a large chip taken out of one side. Inside the block, trapped, were hundreds of creatures, some human, some Malcassairan and another race the Doctor couldn't make out. 'That's odd, never seen you before.' he ran up to the polished surface and peered into it. The people inside were at war, but frozen. Guns raised, swords drawn, mouth's open in silent battle cries.

'Are those real people?' asked Martha horrified.

'Depends what you call people.' replied the Doctor emotionlessly. He pointed at one of the creatures which looked like a snake with arms and legs and about twice the size of regular humans. 'I don't know what that is, I should because my history is perfect.' he added with a smile at Martha.

'This is the famous 'Frozen War.' The two planets, Malcassairo and Barcelona, the planet not the country, anyway, anti-war activist hippy people come down and bombed the place but not to kill.' the Doctor gave a dramatic pause.

'Oh, the tension,' said Martha sarcastically.

'But to freeze them in this stuff, to keep them preserved. No-one really knows why they had the war in the first place.'

'Hasn't anyone tried to get them out?' Martha asked, running up to the block and tapping on the glass.

'Tried and failed.' replied the Doctor sadly.

Without warning, a cold, clammy hand grasped Martha on the shoulder 'No touching the exhibit madam, sir.' said a monotonous, electronic voice. Martha turned around to find one of the blue men in grey suits staring back at her with a huge smile on its face. It was all Martha could do not to scream, even thought this being was essentially humanoid, its face didn't move when it spoke.

'You're museum staff right?' queried the Doctor

'Affirmative-,' the staff made an odd buzzing noise, like television interference.

'Doctor, what's wrong with it?'

'Him,' the Doctor corrected pointing to his large floral badge saying 'Gregory.' 'Everyone's wearing big, tacky badges with their names on it; he's probably just trying to be polite. Sorry about the badges,' he faced the blue man now, matching his crazy smile with one of his own. 'We kind of just got here; by the way my name's the Doctor.'

'And I'm Martha,' she added. They both held out their hand, not getting a handshake. 'Paralysed from the waist up.' the Doctor whispered from the corner of his mouth.

'Where are your badges sir and madam?' questioned Gregory.

'Doctor! Not sir. Martha! Not madam.' yelled the Doctor

'Security!' Gregory said calmly.

'Ah,' the Doctor and Martha simultaneously.

Gregory had left and was replaced two bulky Malcassairans wearing red robes and clashing nametags. All snarling teeth and lashing tail, classic bully the Doctor had told her.

'How are we going to get out of this one?' Martha said, being violently restrained by Gregory's goons along with the Doctor.

'Oh we always do.' The Doctor muttered dismissively.

'So?'

'We're not.'

'What?'

'Got 'em right where we want 'em. Look over there.'

The Doctor was pointing with a significant struggle back at the war scene captured in the glassy substance. Through the steel grey of the swords and the slimy dark green of the skin of the serpent creatures, she spotted a splash of colour. She focused harder to read the writing on this colour.

'Princess?'

'Prinessa.' The Doctor corrected. Martha was confused for a second, and then the veil lifted.

'Oh my God, how did she get in there?'

'Temporal molecular stasis reconstruction.' the Doctor said.

'And that means?'

'I don't know, but it sounded clever. Anyway, these goons are probably going to take us to the head honcho of this place and we'll work it out from there.'

'You just make this up as you go along don't you?' queried Martha as she and the Doctor were being pushed down bright blue hallways with twists and turns, walls covered with painting, sculptures in every nook and cranny.

'Yeah.' He said dismissively. 'But I do it brilliantly though.'


	3. Jolcrassa

The Doctor and Martha were bustled through two large brown, wooden doors that stood out against the blue of the museum by the two burly men they had met earlier. Inside the white tiled room, a large, purple, pulsating tube about twice the size of a person sat right in the middle.

'The head will meet you shortly.' said burly man #1 as the Doctor had rudely named him.

'Thanks number one.' said the Doctor with a sarcastic wave and a smile.

'Why'd they take us here?' asked Martha 'Why didn't they just kick us out, and what was with that nametag stuff? Oh God I'm excited.'

'Really, I thought that you'd be scared. This planet is very strict, very big on capital punishment, which I probably should have told you earlier.' he added quickly after seeing Martha's stare. 'So, the head-of-museum person is probably gonna give us a big lecture about these nametags and then...' he paused.

'Kill us?' Martha hesitantly guessed.

'Well done, have a banana.'

A grating, metallic voice echoed throughout the room 'I have been informed of you're unlawful activities.'

'Hello Mr museum curator person, you took your time.' said the Doctor to whoever was on the other end of the com system.

'We understand that you have not been wearing your badges,' said the voice, ignoring the Doctor's comment.

'Oh well, it's just a badge right?' piped up Martha.

'Yeah, she's right!' said the Doctor

'Your punishment is death.'

'Show yourselves!' yelled the Doctor 'Face me like a man, or woman, whatever you are.'

'I will not be spoken to-'

'What are you?' Martha interrupted 'you don't sound human or Malcassairan who are we speaking to?'

With the sound of crackling electricity, a shape formed in the purple tube. A large, creature stepped out into the light. His right half was green and scaly like the skin of a snake, moving with the fluidity of a dancer. His left half, in contrast was made of bronzing metal, the design of a robot of war. Only half of his face showed emotion, his metallic half was frozen in perpetual indifference. On the creature's robotic chest was a very familiar piece of armour...

'Doctor?' Martha whispered, also noticing the armour of its arm.

'Who are you?' the Doctor told the serpentine being. 'And where did you get that?'

'I am Jolcrassa, the last of the Perathoon; the last of my race was frozen-'

'Yes, yes we know, we saw the frozen box thingy,' piped up the Doctor. 'But you're not looking so hot are you?'

'There was an error in my plan and the left side of my body was trapped inside in the frozen part when the bomb was dropped however, the creatures I now know to be my saviour rescued me, they had technology far beyond anything that I had ever seen. With this engineering they were able to set me free. Unfortunately, the left side of me died until my angels replaced it with this battle armour. '

'Wait a minute that battle was hundreds of years ago,' interjected Martha

'My angels have powers you cannot believe, they can move through time.'

'Don't be silly; no-one can do that.'

'I noticed that you are not wearing nametags.' said Jolcrassa, ignoring the Doctor's comment.

'What is it with everyone and these nametags, what's so important about them? What's in a name anyway?'

'Just an observation is all.' said Jolcrassa slyly 'Because now I know exactly who you are, the one called the Doctor and his accomplice.

'So, anyone could have told you that. Beginning to get ourselves a bit of a reputation we are.' The Doctor smiled and so did Martha.

'Ever heard of the Daleks?'

Martha's eyes widened and the Doctor's voice became deep and low

'Yeah, actually. They had a war with my home planet Gallifrey. We lost. Everyone lost.'

'They are my saviours. They warned me of you Doctor. The man in the blue box and his friends,' he nodded toward Martha 'the one's without the nametags. Causing so much pain and death to the Daleks. My angels. They were the ones who supplied me with my armour of finest Dalekanium. They said that you would come, a small wound in time created by my masters as a lure and you would come running with the medical kit. That is your job isn't it Doctor.' he chuckled at his own joke.

'Actually we're just on holiday,' Martha butted in, spoiling the mood.

'They told me to destroy you Doctor,' Jolcrassa pulled a futuristic gun out of his belt 'and you can't escape now.'

The large wooden doors closed behind them, the Doctor rushed to the doors, sonic screwdriver in hand. 'The glass is cracking Doctor; the war may have stopped, but not forever. It won't be long before I am reunited with my people once more and we lead our army away to conquer.'

'Hurry!' screamed Martha, rooted to the spot in fear as the half cybernetic creature taunted them.

'It's locked Doctor; you need a key not a light up stick'. Jolcrassa laughed maniacally.

'Distract him Martha,' yelled the Doctor.

'How?'

'Err... Improvise.'

'Oh great. Thanks.'

'No problemo.'

Suddenly, an idea sparked in Martha's head, not the best idea. She took off her shoe and brandished it as a weapon.

'Ooh, I'm impressed girlie.'

'Door opened,' said the Doctor. 'Let's go.'

The gun fired and Martha ducked, so did the Doctor, the wood splintered and broke where his head had been a second earlier. With Jolcrassa's attention now focused on the Doctor, Martha made one last attempt to escape, she used her weapon. The shoe thudded into Jolcrassa's knee; he doubled over in pain as Martha scrambled for the door to meet the Doctor.

'Nice shot, how did you know that his knees were his weakest point?'

'I'm a doctor too you know, quick structural and anatomical analysis plus working out his centre of gravity and rough bone structure, too easy.'

'Well done, here's a challenge for you, something weird about those blue people, any ideas?'

'Not a clue.'

'Me neither, we need to break out the scooby snacks to solve this one.'

Martha smiled 'Where to now.'

'Creepy blue people HQ, and let's get going before tall, shiny and just a bit-.' he waved his index finger around his temple.

'-bonkers comes to kill us.'


	4. Sikron

The Doctor pushed through the front door of the museum to reveal the landscape of Malcassairo. It was beautiful. It reminded Martha of Earth, it was similar in every way, apart from the stars twinkling unnaturally in the orange sky and the faint blue mist amongst the treetops. She was home.

'Remind you of somewhere.' the Doctor said as they walked off towards a large, circular building. 'See that white sun up there?' he pointed at the sky. Martha looked up to find a bright circle of brilliant white which looked like it was emitting black light, it looked very out of place but still beautiful.  
'Its called Martha.' said the Doctor matter-of-factly.

'No way.' Martha said a little too loud.

'Cool hey, alright moving on.'

'How'd you know that the servant quarters was here?' queried Martha.

'Oh, just a guess really.'

'Really?'

'Nope, checked the structure of the whole building and surrounding buildings for any exits or fire escapes and found this little place labelled 'Servant Sleeping quarters.'

'Exit's and fire escapes? Just in case we get attacked by some snake robot thing while we're on holiday.'

'Just in case. Oh, look at that.' The Doctor pointed to a sign on the door.

'No Entry, and-' Martha shook the door's handle '-locked.'

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver. 'Maybe it's just a little stuck.' said the Doctor said with a smile.

The building looked a lot bigger on the inside than the outside. They were standing on a platform looking down on piles of gigantic metal boxes. The Doctor and Martha made their way down the stairs.

'Where are all the blue guys?' said Martha.

'In there's my first guess,' said the Doctor with a shrug, pointing at the boxes.

'In the boxes, they live in the boxes?'

'Hope not but it really looks that way, lets try this one.' he walked up to a box with a sign saying 'Duds.' The door to the storage box was open.

'Not really used to an unlocked door.' Martha said, a little worried

'Don't be so worried, this door seems to scare you more than that snake-refrigerator crossbreed did.'

'Well this is the first unlocked door we've come across.'

'Fair enough.'

'Just open it.'

The door creaked open to reveal an army of those blue people, lined up in ordered groups, Martha and the Doctor walked around the groups, each blue person had the expression of unmistakeable horror. None of them were moving. Each one was different, some mouthing a silent scream, others halfway into the motion of running away from whatever caused the mask of terror on their faces.

'All paralysed from the waist up. Captives forced into slavery.'

'Well done Doctor and...friend.' Jolcrassa was silhouetted in the doorway. They were caught out.

'Martha, remember.' she added curtly.

'Oh have a sook; I have a bad memory if you must know.'

'Do not ever speak to her like that!' the Doctor yelled

'It's ok Doctor, I can speak for myself.' said Martha calmly. 'What are these people?'

'Well that depends on what you call people.' Jolcrassa replied, a creepy smile stretching across his face. 'These are _not _people, they are scum.' Jolcrassa emphasized this by spitting between the eyes of the closest blue person. The green, sticky projectile trickled down the blue person's nose. 'They are the inhabitants of the planet Skreton, simply, my masters needed slaves and so did I for the museum. The Daleks transported me to their planet; I stalked each one, waiting for the time when they were smiling and then popped out of nowhere and froze them and transported them back here. These-' Jolcrassa gestured around the room 'are the duds. They found me stalking them so I froze them so they wouldn't blab. I had to transport them back here so no one found them. You should have seen them, Doctor. Their government was in tatters, hundreds, thousands of people were disappearing and there was nothing they could do about it. All of the inhabitants of Skreton are in these boxes.'

'Why don't they run?' asked Martha 'Their legs are still theirs.'

'If they leave the range of the museum's complex, the chip in their brain will release a nerve gas which will paralyse them fully. And besides, if I catch anyone defecting, I will kill them personally. They know this.'

'Really?' asked the Doctor 'You don't want you're freedom'

To answer his question, the blue people piped up in monotonous unison. 'Freedom is unnecessary.'

'God that was creepy.' said Martha

'Before you die, Doctor-' Jolcrassa said 'you will be tortured just like you tortured the Daleks.'

'You don't really believe them do you?' the Doctor didn't get an answer. 'Ok, so I'm just gonna walk along and agree with this.'

'Of course not.' he said. Jolcrassa had been edging toward the Doctor while they were talking and as he said this, he latched onto the Doctor's arm with his metal hand, held up a triangular shaped remote and pressed a button. In an instant, the Doctor and Jolcrassa were gone leaving Martha by herself.

Martha ran back to the museum in a fury, only guessing that it was the place where the Doctor was taken. If anyone tried to stop her from reaching the Doctor now, they would know about it for a long time. When she reached the front door, she felt a grip on her shoulder.

'Let me go!' shrieked Martha struggled against the strength of the hands owner, she thought for a horrible moment that it may have been Jolcrassa. She turned around to find one of the blue people staring back at her.

'Ssh, don't talk, follow me.' Martha followed, all reason to complain suddenly evaporated when she looked at him. The blue person led Martha to the side of the museum, away from the view of the onlooking Malcassairans. This person looked exactly like the others blue people in the box of 'duds' in the factory, except this one had brightness and alertness in his eyes and he wasn't too bad looking either.

'Still don't talk. My name is Sikron, I stowed away on Jolcrassa's ship to find out why my population was disappearing and I was in the dud room when your friend the Doctor was taken in fact, I got spat on.' Sikron smiled and wiped his forehead.

'That's about all of my questions answered, nice acting by the way. I could never do that if I got spat on.'

'I think I have an idea of where you're friend is.' said Sikron

'Fantastic, lets go.' Martha made her way toward the front door but Sikron pulled her back with surprising strength.

'No, we mustn't be seen, all museum staff will have been informed by now, they'll kill on sight.'

'We're gonna have to go through some dirty cramped tunnel aren't we?'

'Basically.'

'How can I trust you anyway?'

'Well, if I was in your position, I wouldn't, but do what you want. In the end we're both after the same thing.'

Martha thought for a second 'Ok. My name is Martha by the way, Martha Jones.'

'Sikron Tallik.' he opened a small door in the museum wall only just big enough to crawl through with a strange coloured liquid dripping off the walls. 'Ladies first.'


	5. The Dentist's Chair

The hidden room inside the walls of the museum, was sparsely decorated. The room was lit with a dark red light with two dentist chairs and some strange, high tech apparatus in the middle of the room. Pointing at each of the chairs was a big, purple, menacing laser. Strapped down to one of them, was the Doctor. He didn't struggle; Jolcrassa would've snapped him like a twig if he tried to escape. The Doctor had his sonic screwdriver confiscated and it was thrown unceremoniously on top of a cupboard.

'Don't throw it like that.' the Doctor scolded.

'It's not your place to make demands,' Jolcrassa said menacingly while pacing around his torture machine.

'Very simple machine you've got here.'

'It was all I could salvage from this primitive planet,' muttered Jolcrassa. 'You know why you are here don't you?'

'Well,' the Doctor said, feigning his ignorance 'you teleported me here and strapped me to this,' he put on his deep, lets-tease-people-bigger-than-us voice '"torture machine" which looks like you salvaged it from a microwave and' the Doctor raised his eyebrows at the object on the chair next to him 'a spoon?'

'Breakfast idiot, mans gotta eat... well, this side does,' he tapped his flesh and bone chest with his large, metal hand. 'Hey, watch this.' said Jolcrassa brightly. Jolcrassa took out his triangular remote and pointed it at the spoon. The spoon creaked and moaned and twisted itself into a knot right in front of him. 'If I can do that to metal, imagine what I can do to bone.' The Doctor did not respond.

'The Daleks have told me all about you Doctor where's that tired old defiance, the childish taunting and the ancient clichés. Aren't you going to look me in the eye and tell me to _do my worst?'_

'Actually I'm feeling a bit tired today.'

'You've made your choice Doctor.'

'Wait.'

'What is it now?'

'Only kidding, do your worst.' Jolcrassa pressed the button and the Doctor began screaming.

Martha and Sikron were crawling through the dark, muddy tunnel. They hadn't really talked much since they began their tunnel journey, if they had talked at all; it was to express how muddy they were getting.

'Don't worry Martha; this mud evaporates in the sunlight.'

'Will I get the smell out?' groaned Martha, still not entirely convinced.

'No that will stay for a while.' up ahead, Sikron cursed.

'What is it?'

'I hit my head on the exit.'

'Exit? Oh thank God.'

'Keep you're voice down, he's right out there, I can hear them. They're talking about spoons?'

'Oh, that's the Doctor for you.'

'Are you two...together?' asked Sikron hopefully.

'No. Strictly my own race for me, although I've been recently thinking about changing my mind.' Sikron blushed and they both smiled.

Sikron pushed the small stone door away as quietly as possible. The purple shaded mud evaporated in the deep red light as the sound of the Doctor's screams filled the tunnel. It was all Martha could do to stop herself yelling out. Jolcrassa stopped the machine and the Doctor was quiet, breathing heavily.

'I'll break you yet,' whispered Jolcrassa and he left the room, probably to get some more torture equipment. The room was an insane dentist's dream; two operating chairs were in the middle of the bare room with two ostentatious lasers pointing at these chairs. Martha placed the stone back in its place and rushed to the Doctor's side.

'Hi Martha. Hey, how did you get in here?' The Doctor put on his biggest smile to mask his pain.

'Dirty, muddy secret tunnel, thank Sikron here, he told me about it.'

'Pleasure,' said the Doctor, sticking his hand out as far as he could in his wrist restraint but Sikron shook it all the same, albeit with a puzzled look on his face.

'Runaway blue servant guy I presume?'

'Skretonan' Sikron corrected 'but basically yeah.'

'Oh, Skreton, I thought I recognised you. Martha, can you get my sonic screwdriver, it's just over there.' the Doctor nodded to the cupboard. She motioned for the cupboard but she was frozen to the ground at the sound Jolcrassa's voice.

'This is a good one Doctor, it's a gun that rearranges your oh so special Time Lord molecules so slowly. I can move that smart mouth of yours to the end of your foot. Waddaya think of that.' Jolcrassa said with childish energy from the other room.

'Can't wait,' the Doctor muttered sarcastically.

'Are you hurt?' Martha asked.

'Just peachy.' the Doctor replied. Sikron was making himself busy looking carefully at the lasers.

'What the hell, I'll tell you my plan.' Jolcrassa walked into the torture room which Martha noticed was pretentiously printed in large letters on each of the walls of the room, too impressed with his gun to look up.

'Because I really can't see you getting out of this one.' Jolcrassa looked up and saw Sikron and Martha. He looked from Martha to Sikron and then to the Doctor, he spluttered and said.

'How the...it's you again... you can only get in here by teleport,' he pointed at Martha and then at Sikron to which the Doctor piped up. 'Don't point, its rude.' Jolcrassa ignored him and kept spluttering.

'Why are you moving, you're one of those STUPID Skretonans.' he stamped his foot like a petulant child and then raised his gun, confused as to whom to point it at.

'Martha, red button, behind you.' she turned and saw two red buttons on the wall. She hesitated for a moment and hit both buttons. A beam of light came out of each of the lasers pointing at the chair, they could only watch as the reaction took place. One of the beams hit the Doctor in the chest, making him scream. The other beam hit the bent and twisted spoon lying on the chair; the beam bounced of the spoon and hit the ceiling above the cupboard with the sonic screwdriver on it. The part of the ceiling cracked and crumbled away, a large chunk of plaster crushed the sonic screwdriver which sent out a last fizzle of energy at Jolcrassa's gun, which crumbled in his hand.

'Stupid flashy stick!' yelled Jolcrassa. By this time, Martha and Sikron had backed over to the other side of the room. Jolcrassa turned at them and charged. At the last second, they both jumped in opposite directions which forced Jolcrassa to smash right through to another room on the other side of the wall. He dropped out of view on the other side of the hole and Martha heard a splash.


	6. Fear of Death

Martha and Sikron ran to the Doctor. He wasn't moving. She pressed her hands on his chest, his heart wasn't beating. She looked at him and smiled while Sikron looked worried.

'Doctor? Are you O.K.' said Martha, The Doctor's eyes shot open.

'Once again just peachy' Martha and Sikron untied him and he stood up.  
'But that laser thing just hit you' said Martha.  
'That thing was meant to torture, not to kill. Just a tickle really.' The Doctor ran off to the hole in the wall.  
'Yeah sure.'

'Two hearts?' Sikron managed to mumble

'Blue skin?' she replied and ran off to find the Doctor.

Jolcrassa had run right over the platform on the other side of the hole and broke through the metal barrier. Sikron, Martha and the Doctor walked down the stairs to find Jolcrassa frantically splashing in some blue liquid inside a gigantic circular fishbowl.

'Please' he pleaded 'get me out of here.'

'Only if you tell us what you're doing.' said Martha.

'This is the liquid form of the unknownium isn't it? The stuff that all those people are trapped in back in the museum'

'Unknownium? Not very inventive really.' said Sikron

'Why didn't you tell us that it had a name before?'

'You never asked' said the Doctor sheepishly. Martha rolled her eyes and let Jolcrassa respond.

'Yes, it is.' said Jolcrassa, giving up his attempts to climb the slippery glass.

'And if you stay in there much longer, the unknownium will mess with you're metal side to put it in technical terms.'

'And when it gives up, you won't be able keep yourself afloat' Sikron put it 'so you'll die slowly, just as you deserve.'

'Sikron.' the Doctor said warningly.

'This thing took everyone from me, everything I knew he took it,' Sikron was yelling now and Jolcrassa was loving it, a sickly smile plastered on his face. 'He deserves to die in the most pain possible. We can't let him live. Wait a sec, you two are time travellers, Martha told me. Why can't we go back? We can go back before he did this and kill him.' Sikron's eyes blazed with the anger of the thousands of his race who will never be the same.'

'Sikron we can get them back but for now we have to listen to him.' he said firmly. 'So then, you mentioned something about reuniting with your brothers.'

'I have hundreds of these containers.' Jolcrassa said, looking defeated. 'In hundreds of these factories all over the planet. In a couple of minutes all of this unknownium will be shot into the sky and then it will rain down and freeze this planet.' Sikron wandered across the floor of the factory, trying to cool off, marvelling at the hundreds of identical containers. He found a control panel on the other side of the room and studied it carefully.

'The glass is breaking you said,' piped up Martha 'What does that mean?'

'The unknownium bomb,' explained Jolcrassa 'Was a time bomb. Our race, well I did at least, planned the attack along with the Daleks. We were allied against the Malcassairans and the humans. The Daleks had some sort of feud with the Malcassairans, something about tampering with Dalek machinery in the Time War.' His right arm was beginning was failing him as the unknownium seeped into his system. 'Instead of losing lives in battle, we decided to preserve them. After a couple of hundred years the glass will break and my glorious race will once again be free. They will be off their guard and we will kill them. I have arranged transport for every one of my soldiers to escape from this miserable planet forever. We will finish what the Daleks started.'

'That's not going to happen Jolcrassa.' said the Doctor, his face pressed to the glass of the container.

'Who are you to stop me?'

'No need. The Daleks tricked you. The glass will still break and the Perathoon will escape but all those hundreds of years of being trapped will come back to them at once. The glass is just a preserver, when they escape they will die. They tricked you Jolcrassa. They needed you but you they don't anymore. You have lived past your use.'

'How'd you get so powerful anyway?' interrupted Martha 'You run a museum, have easy access to rockets and technology, you must have a lot of money to afford all of this.' She gestured around the gigantic room, her voice and footsteps reverberating off the polished glass containers.

'What do you think, I kidnapped the Skretonans, all of them and when I was done there was an empty planet, billions of tons of gold there for the taking. I bought my way to the top, and killed as well.'

'Hold on, hold on, we've forgotten something.' Said Martha.

'What?' said the Doctor impatiently. He gets like that when his concentration is broken.

'Prinessa!' exclaimed Martha.

'Prinessa?' said Sikron and Jolcrassa at the same time.

'Oh yeah, her, why are people getting sucked into the unknownium in the museum.' Said the Doctor. Jolcrassa shook his head in confusion but Sikron knew.

'It's trying to save itself because it's alive. It thinks we are trying to destroy it because it's just getting older and weaker and so it's taking people-'

'As hostages.' said Jolcrassa, an malevolent smile creeping over his face, he sank slowly under the water, his voice still audible. The light from his left eye had gone out, his left side totally unresponsive.

'In a couple of minutes Doctor, the glass will break.' He made a mental checklist 'my people will escape, you will be dead, that's my favourite and then we will leave and freeze this STUPID planet before the authorities can catch up with us.'

'You're people will die!' yelled the Doctor 'The Daleks tricked you, that's what they do. Just one more question.' said the Doctor, mood changer completely. 'Why didn't you fight the war, why did you sneak and scheme behind everyone's back? Surely a big macho race like the Perathoon would think that war is glorious.'

'I was young and foolish Doctor, I could not face death, and the Daleks told me that there was a way out of it. Things have changed; I now do not fear death. You are wrong about the Daleks. Kill me, my people will still escape, I have programmed the Skretonans to take the Perathoon soldiers to their escape ships. KILL ME, DOCTOR, you will achieve nothing.'

'My pleasure.' whispered Sikron from the other side of the room. Sikron pressed a button on the console he had been studying for some time. In a split second, the unknownium froze and Jolcrassa was trapped. The Doctor turned to Sikron. At the last second, Jolcrassa had taken a gun from his belt and shot but the bullet was trapped.

'What was that for?'

'He is as good as dead now.' Said Sikron menacingly.

Martha was looking at Sikron, her eyes tearing up. Sikron faltered, his confidence lost.


	7. The Frozen Army

'But-but, I had to.' Said Sikron, catching Martha's gaze.

'Come on we have to stop this.' said Martha, moving on from the situation.

'Over here Doctor.' said Sikron, pointing at the console.

'Fantastic, all I need to do is- '

'Doctor!' Martha screamed. A large circle of the wall next to them was glowing white hot.

'Down!' yelled the Doctor. They all ducked under the console as the wall exploded and scattered across the room. Jolcrassa's army of Skretonans marched rigidly through the new hole. Some smiling insanely and others had their mouth open in a scream.

The Doctor stood back up and pressed some buttons on the panel, ignoring the army behind him, Sikron and Martha joined him at the console.

'I'll hold them off.' said Sikron trying his best to be heroic.

'No need' said the Doctor 'But I do need you to make a decision, Sikron.' he waved his finger over a big, red, menacing button. 'This button will dispense of all the unknownium in all of the factories across Malcassairo, the Skretonans won't make it out. The Skretonans raised their weapons and walked briskly into their attack formation. Martha looked into Sikron's eyes, silently pleading with him to agree with the Doctor, seeing that she would trust this Doctor to the end of time, and so should he.

'Ok' Sikron said smiling, he and Martha locked eyes for the last time.

'There's a good boy.' said the Doctor.

Jolcrassa's bullet was slowly making its way through the unknownium and with a slightly audible 'POP' the bullet fell out and clattered to the ground, followed by a metal fist.

The Doctor spun around to pull a few leavers and twist a few dials. His hand was hovering over the button when a gun fired. He spun back to find Martha cradling Sikron in her arms, he was face down with pungent, purple smoke spiralling out of the hole in his back. Crawling on the ground, his left side inactive leaving only his right side to carry him, pointing his gun straight at the Doctor, was Jolcrassa.

'You're next' he hissed, his voice distorted by his failing body. Martha was crying heavily now.

'Oh you won't stay down will you?' said the Doctor. He pressed the button and grabbed Martha who was still trying to cling onto Sikron's body.

'C'mon Martha. Run, run run.' She took the Doctor's hand and the guns fired. As she and the Doctor ducked through the hole made by the Skretonans, Martha could here above the gunfire, the battle cry of Jolcrassa and the 'slosh' of the liquid unknownium.

The liquid froze almost immediately inside the factory; the Doctor and Martha walked up to the hole in the wall and peered inside.

'How come the unknownium didn't go past the hole?'

'Simple, I set up a liquid barrier just as we left with this,' he said holding up a sonic screwdriver. 'I always keep a spare after that incident on the moon a couple of weeks ago; you're a danger to tools everywhere.'

'You better watch yourself then. Besides, that was your fault.'

'That's it, blame the alien.' the Doctor said smiling.

Martha looked back at the unknownium, through the blue haze she could spot Jolcrassa's face screwed up in anger, Sikron's body lying on the ground and even Gregory, the Skretonan that they met at the factory. A crowd had gathered from the museum to see the new addition to the collection. Martha could hear various Malcassairans discussing and analysing the blue block as to why it was art, Martha knew that it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances. Martha had been staring at Sikron for so long that she didn't realise that the Doctor was gone.

'Ladies and gentlemen,' the Doctor had climbed onto an unstably thin branch of the purple shaded tree. '_Mesdames et messieurs'_ the Malcassairans looked confused with this last comment.

'Oh, no-one speaks French here? You should learn, beautiful language, and a good place for a holiday. Anyway, there's something in the museum everyone needs to see.'

The Doctor seemed to have the attention of everyone in the crowd because they all moved off through the doors. The Doctor jumped down from the tree and met Martha at the doors.

'So what now?' asked Martha.

'One more thing, don't worry, we won't be here long.'

The crowd along with the Doctor and Martha gathered around the first Unknownium Panorama, uncertain why there were there. Many people had come up to the Doctor to ask him personally.

'Why the hell are we here?' yelled one rather peeved Malcassairan. A sharp crack echoed through the hallway.

'Just keep looking at the sculp-' The Doctor didn't finish his sentence. The unknownium splintered more heavily with every crack, a Malcassairan disappeared. A bright blue circle had descended onto the heads of the crowd and almost half of them disappeared. The Unknownium had cracks running all the way through it, but then it stopped. The cracking stopped, people were gone and the crowd turned against the Doctor and Martha.

'Doctor, what did you do?'

'Don't worry, it'll work,' the Doctor said dismissively.

'What did you do to my husband?' a woman shrieked.

The Doctor was getting worried now, the diminished crowd advanced towards Martha and the Doctor. Children wandering around aimlessly, wives of husbands screaming at the sky the names of their partners. The men of the crowd, teeth bared and tails lashing.

'Doctor what the hell do we do?'


	8. Never Too Old

He breathed for the first time in 737 years, 8 months and 21 days but to Jake Swame, the time had passed in the blink of an eye. What happened and where was he? He was surrounded by blue glass. He looked straight ahead, one of those Perathoon had shot at him but the bullet and the creature were suspended, time frozen. He stepped back to look at the whole panorama. He heard raised voices behind him but he didn't care.

He was out of the war. He was in a glorious building with a ceiling that rose into the sky. He was in a museum of some sort, there were paintings and sculptures lining the walls of the long hallway and right in the middle was a gigantic blue glass square. The war had stopped, the activists had come through with their word and there they were, his men trapped in the blue glass like bugs in amber. But the glass was riddled with cracks and that must be how he got out, he must have broken through. There could be hope for his men yet. That was when he heard the woman scream.

Jake snapped out of his trance and his soldier instincts took over. A group of people were ganging up against a sharply dressed man and a young lady. These people had tails, which Jake thought was strange at first but Earth was moving, or had moved by now, into an age when dealing with extra-terrestrials is necessary. For all he knew, Jake could be on Earth now or he could still be at Malcassairo.

'Oi, help us' Jake heard the woman yell from somewhere in the crowd. Jake panicked, something no self-respecting soldier would ever admit to. He raised his gun and pointed it at the hostiles.

'Don't move,' yelled Jake, his nervous voice betraying his feigned confidence. They all slowly turned around, attention focused on the gunman.

'Take it easy kid.' a voice said from the crowd. Jake fired a warning shot above their heads which only prompted more screaming. Jake was getting a little jumpy now.

'Where am I?' asked Jake as calmly as possible, they all had their hands up now.

'Malcassairo sir, the Great Museum, sir.'

'And this war that happened-' he pointed to the blue square 'how long ago did it happen?'

'Hundreds of years ago sir, no-one really knows when it exactly happened, sir.'

'Don't call me sir.' said Jake, rather irritated.

'Don't you hate that?' said a voice from behind him. He spun around to find the well dressed man and the young, dark lady standing behind him. Everyone was confused for a moment, the hostiles looked back to the spot which was once occupied by the two people, now standing in front of him.

'Quickly,' said the man. 'I need you to shoot the unknownium structure.' Jake was confused, Martha simply pointed at the box.

Jake understood and shot 22 rounds into the weak structure. The glass crumbled around the soldiers and they were awake, the war began again. The two armies, wildly sprinting towards each other slowed down and then stopped. They looked around, confused. Jake understood exactly what they were feeling.

'What is this villainy?' hissed one of the Perathoon. 'What have you done to us?'

The crowd of Malcassairans were staring in wonder at the events unfolding, the numbers of the crowd who had disappeared had returned with much tears and hugging even if there were apart for only a minute. The well-dressed man who called himself the Doctor ran between the two armies, arms raised.

'You're still on Malcassairo but hundreds of years in the future. There is no point in fighting, the battle is over, Malcassairo, whatever your planet is –' he pointed at one of the Perathoon 'and even Earth has moved on.' said the Doctor calmly. This is when the realisation hit, everyone that any of these people had ever known, everyone that he ever knew had died. His wife, his brother and his parents were all dead. Maybe his wife came here sometimes to visit him when he was in this box thing, maybe she was told that Jake had died in battle. All these questions will never be answered. Many of his soldiers had sat down and cried and Jake did the same.

'Doctor, you have to tell them,' whispered Martha after he did his speech to the soldiers. 'It's going to be hard but we have to.'

'I know, c'mon let's talk to him first,' the Doctor was pointing at the soldier who released everyone, he was crying.

Can we really do this to him; after all he's been through?'

'All of these people are in the same boat, Martha, everyone has to be told.' Martha agreed and they both sat on either side of the soldier.

'Hello, my name is the Doctor.'

'And I'm Martha.'

'Do you want a banana, you must be famished.' he had ducked back to the TARDIS a couple of minutes ago to grab his favourite brown coat with massive pockets and pulled a banana out of one of them.

Jake munched slowly on the fruit and then turned to the Doctor.

'I'm Colonel Jake Swame.' he shook hands with the Doctor and Martha.

'I'm sorry for your loss,' said Martha 'but there is something we have to tell you.'

Tears appeared in Martha's eyes and she couldn't continue. The Doctor picked it up.

'You were trapped in the unknownium for hundreds of years. The stuff has preserved you for a bit, but in a few minutes, all these years will catch up with you and'

'- I'll die.' Jake finished.

'Everyone in the Malcassairan war will die.' the Doctor said solemnly.

'I need to know Doctor, who was it? who was it that froze us. There was the Perathoon but there was someone else behind is wasn't there?'

'You're right, it was a race called the Daleks. A heartless race, they kill, it's all they do. They are the ultimate form of racists; they kill because they honestly believe that their race is the only one that deserves life.' Jake didn't say anything for a while but then the Doctor piped up.

'Well we have to tell everyone else now.'

'No, I'll tell them, it's my job as a soldier, I'm trained for it. You two are travellers, I can tell, you go and have your adventures.' Jake's soldier instinct took over once again; he stood up and saluted the Doctor and Martha.

'Oh, don't salute, I don't need a salute' moaned the Doctor. Jake smiled and walked over to his men.

Martha had changed back into her regular jacket and the Doctor was happily munching on a banana at the console of the TARDIS.

'God, that thing was itchy, where the hell do you get those bananas?' Martha asked.

'No need to get narky, you could have just asked.' and with that, he pulled another one out from his jacket and threw it at Martha. 'What happened in the end with the Malcassairans? You said that someone had changed history, something about yellow beetle people?'

'Well,' said the Doctor, looking a bit uncomfortable 'It was the TARDIS' fault, it sent us back 500 years before it was supposed to.'

'So no-one was changing history,' Martha said smugly.

'No-one was changing history,' confessed the Doctor. Suddenly, he perked right back up.

'Well you've changed your mind haven't you?' said the Doctor with a mouthful of banana.

'What do you mean?'

'You once told me that it was 'strictly human for you', that you wouldn't go for aliens.'

'So?'

'Well you and Sikron couldn't keep your eyes off each other.'

'Oh, shut up you,' said Martha smiling.  
'He was a hero Martha, remember that.'  
'I will.' she said solemnly 'So where are we off to now?'

'That's right, change the subject. I don't know, let's put it on random. Hey wait a sec, come over here.' Martha hurried over and the Doctor was looking at the screen which showed outside of the TARDIS. Back in the museum, Prinessa was waving at the TARDIS.

'Thank you Mr Smith, and you too Martha.' came the scratchy voice through the intercom system. The Doctor raised something resembling a microphone and spoke.

'Any time Prinny.' Prinessa noticeably blushed and the Doctor gave a big wink to Martha. Martha stared back with a look that said _Prinny?_ 'And call me Doctor.'

'See ya.' Martha put in, wanting to say something. The Doctor pressed a button on the console and the TARDIS de-materialised.

'Goodbye, Doctor.' said Prinessa. The picture disappeared.

'Bit old for you, isn't she?' commented Martha.

'You have to remember that I'm over 900 myself.' he countered.

'You're mad.'

'For this job-' The Doctor whizzed around and pressed some buttons. 'You have to be.'


End file.
